This blog site initially focused on renewable energy and the environment. But that was SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth. My next book, SS for Humanity, opened the subject area to everything else, including SETI, the afterlife, travel and cuisine. However, I still provide, now and then, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS.

Total Pageviews

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW...

Yesterday was the peak of Carnival--Shrove Tuesday...Pancake Tuesday...Fat Tuesday...or Mardi Gras (the French translation of Tuesday Fat)--the day before when Lent begins, which is Ash Wednesday, today. Above, from Rio and below, New Orleans:

But in New Orleans, they wend their way through various parts of the city. I spent 3 1/2 years in Louisiana, so I several times experienced Hurricanes (it's a drink--I still have the glass) and tossed beads (also a few of them, too):

The most popular song in the New Orleans version is "Go to the Mardi Gras." One of my very favorite movies was Black Orpheus (1959), which took place during Carnival in the '50's.

Ash Wednesday begins the 40-day liturgical period of fasting and prayer, a most appropriate re-start to the Republican Primary debate, which continues tonight from Mesa, Arizona (sponsored by CNN from 8PM eastern time). Which candidate will show up, I wonder, wearing a cross on his forehead. If either Romney or Santorum makes only one serious gaffe, it could all be over for that person. How's that for pressure.

Next Tuesday (February 28) will continue the embarrassing survival series in Arizona and Michigan, with Super Tuesday the following Tuesday (March 6) involving Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia. The Hawaii caucus is on March 13, and the Northern Mariana Islands end it all on July 31. By the way, while Rick Santorum has caught up in the polls with Mitt Romney, and actually leads four states to three, he today stands at #4 in secured delegates with 9, compared to 91 for Romney.

Girl Scout cookies are now on sale! They took out all the trans fats. Thin mints are the most popular, and Savannah Smiles (above, lemony) the newest. Prices differ from place to place and you can't yet order online. It is not tax deductible if you eat it, but is if you donate them back to the Girl Scouts. Seventy percent of sales remain at the local council. 200 million boxes are produced annually and Jennifer Sharpe (right, with her mother) in 2008 sold 17,328 boxes.

How did she do it? According to her mother, this shy girl just sat at a street corner in Dearborn, Michigan, every day during the cookie selling season and did her best. No great network system, no help, except from her mother.

They're against Atlanta tonight, but you can watch the New York Knicks, with Jeremy Lin, Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, play the Miami Heat, with Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, on TNT tomorrow night (Thursday, February 23 at 7PM, eastern time). Miami is on a seven game win streak, expects to be in the NBA finals, and win. Miami won at home almost a month ago by ten points. But that was before Super Lin. The Heat are rated #1 in the NBA, wile the Knicks are #10. There are rumors that both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama might be in the crowd.

The previous night, Sunday, February 26, features the Academy Awards on ABC at 7PM ET, hosted by Billy Crystal, his ninth time. I can't believe that The Artist will win more Oscars than it should. This was a very creative but average film. It would be especially terrible if Jean Dujardin beats out George Clooney for Best Actor.

-The Dow Jones Industrials slipped 27 to 12,938, while world markets were also mostly down. Gold jumped $21/toz to $1778, while the WTI crude is at $106/barrel and Brent spot at $123/barrel. Many are predicting $130/barrel by this summer, and Republicans are hoping for $5/gallon gasoline.

No comments:

TRANSLATE TO YOUR LANGUAGE

SEARCH this blog

HONOLULU TIME

Most Popular Posts

For the longest time, the day when the most visitors (3,356) clicked on this blog site was 27February2010 on THE CHILE EARTHQUAKE. Why? Probably because this posting was linked to my Huffington Post article of that day reporting on HAWAII TSUNAMI. Natural disasters tend to increase readership. However, on 6March2017THE WONDERS OF ALCOHOL drew 6498. Further, too, on 6June2017, the one-month tally of visitors was 70,219, or 2340/day. For nine years until mid-2017 this daily average consistently remained under 500/day.

Interesting to note that not one of the top 20 postings reports on natural disasters (not sure what those numbers stand for, but they indicate a kind of relativity), the newest of this list goes back five years, and the highest rated this year is just over 300. Clearly, people are reading my older postings, but there is no sense to which subject areas are popular.

VIEWERS

VIEWERS X

WE MUST TAKE ACTION ON GLOBAL WARMING NOW!

Last year surpassed 2014 as the warmest year on record since the mid to late 19th century. Global sea level also rose to a new high, 2.75 inches higher than in 1993, when record-keeping began. Tropical cyclones were 25% higher than the average. The Arctic is melting, severely.

WHAT IS THE PRICE OF OIL?

WHAT WILL BE THE FUTURE PRICE OF OIL?

Click on:
FUTURE PRICE OF OIL
to gain a sense of what the financial community thinks will be the future price of crude oil. When I last viewed this Chicago Board of Trade (a NYMEX company) future contracts page on 110March2014, the futures price of oil in December 2022 was $78.59. This makes no sense to me.

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX AND THE INFLATION RATE

The CPI is based on 1984 at 100. Thus, 241 means a 241% inflation since 1984.
There are various ways to look at this, but one is to subtract 100 from 241, getting 141, so the effective inflation today, nearly a third of a century later, is 141% higher. Another comparison is that the CPI in 1916 was 10.9, and is at 240.853 today, a hundred years later. Thus, the average commodity that sold for a buck then, today goes for $22.

Calculate Your Body-Mass Index

ABOUT ME

I am Director Emeritus of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii and co-founder of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research.
I have published three SIMPLE SOLUTION books and have written more than 100 articles for the HUFFINGTON POST. I am working with an enlightened team to pioneer the BLUE REVOLUTION (http://bluerevolutionhawaii.blogspot.com/),
beginning with the development of the Pacific International Ocean Station.